How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors

This will be a strange way to begin a guide to blogging, but I want to save you time, trouble, and heartache: The average author does not benefit much from blogging.

Yet blogging is still recommended to authors as a way to market and promote. Why? Because blogging does work, if certain conditions are met. The problem is that few authors meet those conditions. This post will delve into what it means to blog successfully and in a meaningful way for an author’s long-term platform and book marketing efforts.

For clarity: I define “blogging” as publishing material to a site that you own and control—usually your author website. Blogging is sometimes conflated with online writing for other websites or blogs, but that’s not what I’m discussing in this post.

What it takes to become an effective blogger

If you approach blogging as something “lesser than” your other published writing, you’re more likely to fail at it. While blogging can be less formal, less researched, and more geared for online reading or social sharing, to do it well requires the same kind of practice and skill as crafting a novel. You get better at it the more you do it, but I see many authors give up before they’ve put in enough hours to understand the medium. Furthermore, to stick with blogging for long enough for it to pay off, you have to actually enjoy what it means to blog, and how online writing can be different from print.

If you treat blogging seriously, all the writing or content that you generate for your blog can have another life, in another format or within another publication. For example, the best of my blog content is condensed into a book, Publishing 101. That required a lot of editing and reformulation (online writing can’t be dumped into print without a lot of revision), but it reflects the value and depth of what appears on my blog.

Blogging is often straightforward for nonfiction writers, less so for novelists

Nonfiction writers and experts have it easy: their subject matter lends itself to blogging, especially if they’re teaching workshops or regularly interacting with their target readership. Such writers probably know off the top of their head the questions that get asked most frequently, the topics that are most popular, and the problems that surface again and again. This is invaluable starting fodder for a successful blog: knowledge of one’s audience.

Fiction writers can have successful blogs as well, especially if they’re able to focus on a specific topic, theme, or subgenre—in other words, a particular cohort of readers. But I find it most difficult for unpublished novelists to gain traction with an author blog; only after the novelist has built a name for herself does a blog readership tend to develop. With nonfiction authors, the opposite is the case: blogging can help build a platform that leads to a book deal.

This is why advice about blogging can be so contradictory and confusing: much depends on what genre you’re writing in and who you’re writing for.

To confuse matters further, in the literary/MFA community, there’s a concept known as literary citizenship, which I like to describe as “marketing and promotion lite.” It involves discussing books, writers, and things that surround the literary community that you want to see flourish. It could mean interviewing other authors, reviewing or talking about books that you’ve read lately, or otherwise featuring or focusing on other people in the community. This is a key way for an unpublished fiction writer to begin building a network of contacts that’s useful upon publication—in other words, it’s useful for building an author platform.

Consistency is critical for effective blogging

There are two types of consistency: frequency and subject matter.

Frequency: To gain any kind of momentum, you should commit to two posts a week. Some people may be able to get by on one post a week, but you’ll struggle to gain traction. Ideally, starting out, you should shoot for several times per week. The longer you blog, and the more of an audience you build up, the more you can ease back on frequency.

Subject matter: Think about this in terms of your headlines for your blog posts. If you look at a month’s worth of your blog headlines, they should convey a strong message about what you cover on your blog and who it’s for. A potential reader should be able to easily tell if they’re going to benefit from reading your posts on an ongoing basis.

Unfortunately, authors can have trouble staying focused and disciplined on one topic or subject matter, often because they get bored or they think readers will get bored. But again, it’s hard to gain traction if you’re switching it up all the time and not consistent in what you offer.

If you’re interested in blogging, but worry about the time commitment, then consider creating a multi-contributor blog, where several authors in the same genre (or targeting similar audiences) band together. That helps reduce the burden as well as increase the size of your audience starting out—since more people will be marketing and promoting the blog.

People may have to see you talking about your blog on social media for months before they actually click through to read a post—or before they even become aware that your blog exists. This isn’t necessarily through any fault of your own; there’s an incredible amount of noise around us, and enormous demands on everybody’s attention. If you make a continual series of impressions over a long period of time on the same topic, then it starts to click: “Oh, this person is blogging, and they’re regularly covering this topic.” Some writers assume, “Oh, everybody knows I’m blogging because I posted about it,” but no. That’s not the case, and that’s why consistency is so important.

The more time you spend blogging, the more value you build for readers over time and the more they find you. Your efforts snowball.

Also realize that only about 10% of your readers (or even fewer) will make themselves known to you or engage with you on your blog, so it takes a while before you reach a tipping point, where there’s a concrete indication of growing activity or interest.

What should you blog about?

If you’re at a complete loss when faced with this question, maybe you shouldn’t blog; I discuss why here. Sometimes I’ve told authors that the best bloggers are those who weren’t told to go do it. This is a little harsh—I think people can learn to love it—but blogging isn’t an activity authors should be dragged into, kicking and screaming. Nor should you feel like it’s a burden to come up with ideas; ideally, your problem is too many ideas.

Do think through how can you bring your own voice or perspective to a topic, theme, or subject matter without repeating what’s already out there. This is easier said than done. It took me 18 months to find the right angle—to realize I do best when I focus on business advice and digital media topics for authors.

The most successful blogs have a very focused angle and appeal to a very specific audience. This makes it easier to attract attention and build a community around common interests or perspectives.

No one should blog in a vacuum

Before you start a blog, identify the other key people already blogging in your area—the influencers. Start reading and sharing their content, and comment at their blog. Eventually, if possible, you should guest blog for them. See the other bloggers not as competitors, but as community members who may eventually become supporters of your work. If your blog is high-quality, and generates conversation, they’ll be likely to recommend you or send you traffic. So identify the notable community players, or the people who you’ll want to build relationships with over time.

Choose the right blogging platform

The best platform to use is whatever you use for your author website—do not be tempted to build your blog somewhere else. You want everything under the same umbrella for search engine optimization and long-term marketing strategy. So, for example, if you have an author website on SquareSpace, then start your blog there; don’t start one over at WordPress or Blogspot.

If you don’t have an author website, or if you’re doing a multi-contributor blog, then I recommend using WordPress. It’s well-supported, continually developed, and runs about 20% of all websites today. Here’s my step-by-step guide to hosting your own website or blog, which doesn’t take longer than 10-15 minutes.

Before you launch the blog

Before you start, consider the following.

Blog title and tagline. There are no hard-and-fast rules here, but it should be clear to new visitors what your blog is about and what they’re going to get from it. If your blog title is metaphorical, clever, or not clear about the blog’s subject matter (or if it’s just under your name), add a tagline that tells and sells the angle. Even Michael Hyatt, who is very well-known at this point, has a tagline: “Your Leadership Mentor.”

Readability. If your blog is meant to primarily be read, then don’t hamper readability by making the text too small, too tight or (worst of the worst) white type on a black background. Be aware that ads or a hard-to-navigate layout can also hamper readability and drive readers elsewhere.

About page or bio. If your blog content is interesting, people will want to know more about the person behind it. Don’t make them search for this. Create a separate page, and be sure to include a way to contact you.

Comments. You should develop (if only for yourself) some kind of policy on how you’ll handle or moderate discussions. Will you approve every comment before it goes live? Will comments be automatically published if they’re not spam? An open commenting policy that doesn’t require sign-in helps you get more comments, but you’ll want to make sure you’re receiving email alerts when new comments are posted, just in case you need to delete anything spammy or inappropriate that gets through. Fortunately, major blog platforms (like WordPress) help you streamline your comment system to automatically eliminate spam activity. If you have any trouble, then install Akismet, the industry-standard plugin to eliminate spammy comments.

How to craft quality posts that get read and shared

Quality can be a squishy term; much depends on what your audience or readership considers “quality” or what kind of content is engaging to them. The better you know your audience, the better your posts will be.

However, here’s how to ensure that your posts are more likely to be engaged with and shared.

Don’t be afraid of length. Somewhere along the line, people started thinking that ideal blog posts are 500 words, even less. That’s simply not true. In fact, when it comes to search ranking, Google looks at the substantive nature of the content and will rank your content lower if it appears shallow. Social media is typically better for quick shares, brief commentary, or short statements—or anything that doesn’t merit more than 100-200 words. The most successful posts at this site are regularly longer than 2,000 words. However, the longer the content, the more readable it needs to be, which brings us to the next point.

Improve scannability. Most people skim online content and make a very quick judgment call as to whether it merits paying closer attention. If so, your content may be saved for later—or readers will slow down and read the content from beginning to end. To make your content easily scanned, add subheads, plenty of paragraph breaks (one-line paragraphs are acceptable), bulleted lists or numbered lists, bold lead-ins—whatever it takes to make your posts more easy to grasp and see if it’s valuable.

Add at least one image. You’ll notice that I always begin posts with an image. Psychologically, this typically improves the perceived value of the post—plus these images get pulled and used when the post is shared on social media. It’s OK if the image isn’t directly related to the content; it can be metaphorical, as long as it’s attention-grabbing or colorful. Blending in is the opposite of what you want. (You can find plenty of free-to-use images at VisualHunt.)

Ask a question at the end. If you want to get people active in the comments, you’ll do better if you end the post on a question, where you ask people to share something specific about their knowledge or experience. Active comments are generally seen as a good thing because it increases the time people spend on your content, which is a signal of engagement for search engines and thus contributes to better search ranking for your blog.

Your post headlines are critical

If people saw only your post headline (e.g., on Twitter), would they feel compelled to click on it? Remember, the headline is often the only thing people see when they’re surfing online and looking at search results, so it’s one of the biggest factors in whether your post gets read. Here are a few considerations:

Is the headline specific and clear? There’s very little room to be clever, cute, or abstract with blog post headlines. Plus, for search engine optimization, you need to be thinking of what keywords might belong in that headline that will help people find your post.

Is the headline intriguing or provocative? I’m not advocating clickbait headlines, but it doesn’t hurt to create mystery, intrigue, or play on people’s curiosity. You cross the line into clickbait when the headline doesn’t deliver on the promise made, or if the headline is overly sensationalized to get clicks.

Does the headline offer a benefit? All of us have limited time and energy to consume content online, so we’re always thinking WIIFM? (What’s in it for me?)

Here are some actual blog post headlines that I helped an author improve, to be more specific and attuned to keyword search.

Original headline: Turn, Turn, Turn
Improved headline: What If You’re Dreading the Change of Seasons?

Original headline: Wanna Have Coffee?Improved headlnie: Overcoming the Obstacles That Prevent You From Meditating

Create cornerstone content

Cornerstone content refers to any article, post, or page at your site that draws new readers to your blog consistently, usually through search or by referral from other sites. Cornerstone content often is a comprehensive, definitive piece that tackles a frequently asked question, issue, or problem—or features a very popular author or thing in popular culture that is searched for often.

The cornerstone content on this blog can be seen right under “Most Popular Posts”—each one points to my 101 posts on how to get published.

Sometimes, cornerstone content might be a manifesto or download in PDF form. Chris Guillebeau is well-known for 279 Days to Overnight Success that drew thousands (if not millions) to learn about his blog and his message.

If you’re a nonfiction writer, then this probably comes naturally: Put together a 101 guide, FAQ, or tutorial related to your topic or expertise—something people often ask you about. (My most visited resource on this site is Start Here: How to Get Your Book Published.)

If you’re a novelist, this strategy may take some creative thinking. Consider the following:

If your book is strongly regional, create an insider’s guide or travel guide to that particular region. Or think about other themes in your work that could inspire something fun: a collection of recipes; a character’s favorite books, movies, or music; or what research and resources were essential for completing your work.

Create a list of favorite reads by genre/category, by mood, or by occasion. Tie into current events or “look-alike” media whenever you can; for example, if you write romance and you know your readers love The Bachelor, create a list of books that fans of the show would enjoy reading.

If you have a strong avocational pursuit (or past profession) that influences your novels, create FAQs or guides for the curious.

Having even one piece of cornerstone content greatly reduces your burden to attract readers to your site through brand-new content. If it does its job, the cornerstone piece will bring a steady stream of new readers over a period of weeks and months, some of whom will become loyal followers.

Make it easy to browse and share your posts

Some blogs have such a minimal design that it’s difficult to see the bigger picture of what type of content the blog offers. Even though there are benefits to a minimalist design, I get more engagement by having a sidebar that offers tools to navigate the history of my blog and the hundreds of posts that live here.

Calendar/archive. People new to your blog may want to dig around in your older posts. Make it easy for them to do so by offering a post calendar or archive.

Category search. Blog content should be organized into 5-10 different categories that are of high interest to your audience. For example, if people read an interview or book review on your site that interests them, they may want to browse all previous interviews or book reviews. Make this easy by categorizing the posts correctly and making the categories visible with posts.

Most popular posts. For new readers of your blog, it’s helpful to have a consistent box or sidebar that tells readers what your most popular posts are.

Sharing functionality. Make it easy for people to share your posts on Facebook, Twitter (or just about anywhere else) by adding sharing buttons to the bottom of your posts. This functionality is usually built-in to most blogs.

Improve your content’s discoverability through search engines (SEO)

Search engine optimization really requires its own post. However, you’ll be doing a good job with your SEO if:

You use WordPress or Squarespace, which are already optimized for search.

You make sure each post is categorized and tagged appropriately.

You think about how readers would search for your content, and incorporate those search keywords into your post headline, post subheads, and more. If your site is self-hosted, then install WordPress SEO by Yoast, which will give you both the tools and education you need to optimize your content for search.

If your site is self-hosted, then you should have Google Analytics installed. If not, get started today—it’s a free service and easy to set up. After Google Analytics has collected at least 1 month of data, take a look at the following:

How do people find your blog? Through search? Through your social media presence? Through other websites that link to you?

What search words bring people to your site?

What pages or posts are most popular on your site?

By knowing the answers to these questions, you can better decide which social media networks are worth your investment of time and energy (at least as far as blog promotion is concerned), who else on the web might be a good partner for you (who is sending you traffic and why?), and what content on your site is worth your time to continue developing (what content will bring you visitors over the long run?).

Create lists or round-ups on a regular basis

A very popular way to make people aware of your blog is to link to others’ blogs. If you can do this in a helpful way, it’s a win for you, for your readers, and for the sites you send traffic to.

In the writing and publishing community, weekly link round-ups are very common. (See Joel Friedlander and Elizabeth Craig.) You can create such lists or round-ups on any theme or category that interests you enough to remain dedicated, enthusiastic, and consistent for the long haul—at least six months to a year, if you want to see a tangible benefit.

Run regular interviews with people who fascinate you

Believe it or not, it’s rare to come across an informed, thoughtful, and careful interviewer and interview series (or—not just someone looking to fill a slot or post generic content based on pre-fab questions).

Think about themes, hooks, or angles for an interview series on your site, and run them on a regular basis—but only as frequently as you have time to invest in a well-researched and quality interview. Such series also offer you an excellent way to build your network and community relationships, which has a way of paying off in the long run.

Be a guest blogger or interviewee on other sites

Whenever you guest or appear on other websites, that’s an opportunity to have multiple links back to your own site and social network accounts.

Whenever you make an appearance on another site, always promote the interview on your own social networks and create a permanent link to it from your own website.

Above all: You need patience

Here’s what my blog traffic looked like in its early years.

December 2009. This is when I started using WordPress on this domain. I posted 3-4 times per month.

Mid-2010. This is when my traffic reached about 100 visits a day.

January 2011: I began a weekly series at my site, unrelated to writing and publishing, that featured mother-daughter interviews.

July 2011: This is when I began regularly blogging about writing and publishing at JaneFriedman.com (rather than at Writer’s Digest).

After about two years of consistency, I reached about 60,000 visits per month.

Most people I meet who blog either aren’t committed, or give up too soon, before gaining momentum that builds on itself. It’s true, however, that some people should give up, because they’re not producing the right content or the best content for their audience.

Related

Jane Friedman

Jane Friedman (@JaneFriedman) has 20 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in digital media strategy for authors and publishers. She is the co-founder and editor of The Hot Sheet, the essential newsletter on the publishing industry for authors.

In addition to being a columnist for Publishers Weekly, Jane is a professor with The Great Courses, which released her 24-lecture series, How to Publish Your Book. She also has a book forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press, The Business of Being a Writer (March 2018).

Jane speaks regularly at conferences and industry events such as BookExpo America, Digital Book World, and the AWP Conference, and has served on panels with the National Endowment for the Arts and the Creative Work Fund. Find out more.

[…] Starting an author’s blog is simple. You only need to purchase a domain and hosting for yourself to start the process. Once you’ve done that, you should start considering some of the things that define a successful author blog: […]

[…] Cornerstone content includes the content that consistently attracts traffic and attention through search or other types of sharing. For example, one of my cornerstone posts is How to Get Your Book Published. I also have a cornerstone post on how to get started blogging. […]

This is great! There’s so many good pointers here that I could hardly contain myself. Blogging has been very rewarding over the years, but now I’m learning more of the strategy and consistency behind it.

Thank you for this excellent resource! So much useful information in one place. Your blog post was in the #1 position when I googled “blogs on writing”, and I can see why.
One topic I have some questions on… you have interspersed in the comments other “comments” that have a green icon with a <dot symbol. I'm not familiar with that. Are they placed manually or automatically? Some appear to be from you (Jane Friedman) and some from others. I'm interested in their role.

Jane, thank you for this excellent post and for your persistence and commitment to blogging. I had a successful writing blog about 10 years ago, but then was promoted in my full-time job and simply got way too busy to blog consistently. Since launching my business a few months ago, I’ve been itching to also launch a new blog focused on marketing and public relations. While researching blogging, I’ve found that the world has sure changed. Social media adds a whole new element to blogging, which can be good or bad depending on how you manage your blog posts and… Read more »

There is so much helpful information in this post! Granted, I’m coming to the conversation late, but still. Thanks for writing this. I’m not the greatest blogger, so I know I’ll be referring to this blog quite a bit to improve my content.

Wow, so much helpful information, Jane. Thank you. A question about readership I need some clarity on. When you’re starting out is it OK /advisable to email your initial post(s) to those in your Contacts (Address Book)? If so, what do you advise from then on? Do you ask explicitly for them to subscribe, or just assume they will if they’re interested?

Hi Becky – No, I would not email your blog posts to your Contacts/Address Book. If you believe you /must/ send to all of your Contacts in that way, then send a single, one-time email that offers people a way to officially join your email newsletter list, and send notifications of blog posts only to your official, opt-in list. MailChimp is a good service and is free up until 2,000 names.

Thanks Jane. I use AWeber, and have a fair few subscribers. Am reviving my blog after a two year hiatus and was thinking about how to let my friends/contacts know. Perhaps I’ll send out a one-off notification and let it go from there. Thanks so much, Becky 🙂

A very informative article. You confirmed a few of my instincts, as well as challenged me on things like the importance of focus and headlines. I’m a freelance writer specializing in healthcare as my day job, but I’ve spent years penning personal essays that never see the light of day and dreaming of writing fiction. I’ve finally garnered the courage and determination to start my own blog, and I really appreciate the direction you’ve provided in this post. Thanks!

[…] Jane Friedman publishes a website and blog aimed at the would-be writer, with tips on everything you should know about getting published, creating a successful website, writing for the web and blogging for money. […]

I’m a fiction author and I recently polled my list (and street team) about this very topic – do they, as readers, read blogs? The answer was a resounding no. While I do post on my blog from time to time, I’m not going to dedicate too much time or effort to it.

[…] for a blog; you don’t have to start one now. However, you should consider starting one soon. Jane Friedman’s—How to Start Blogging: A Definitive Guide for Authors will explain why blogging is important for authors. Blogging not only gets you out there, put it […]

[…] course, I did some basic research. What I decided to use as my main guideline was How to Start Blogging by Jane Friedman. I’m not going to do every single thing she says, but a lot of it resonated […]

Such a great post. I started blogging when I was around 10 or 11 because my aunt blogged and I thought it looks fun. Back then it was just a fun mess, then the platform went bankrupt and I had to move. Starting again from scratch was hard, trying to write like a professional blogger when you were only 13 or 14 is harder. I thought my content wasn’t original enough, so I gave up. Now I’m 18, an aspiring author, and trying to build a blog that will serve as a platform to showcase my published/upcoming works, anything writing… Read more »

I absolutely love this post. Before I began blogging regularly I research many blogs and website for information and advice. This is one of the best post I read on how to start blogging. Thank you so much for this mini handbook!!

Giving up too early has been my problem in the past. I think in the early days poor or inaccurate guru advice made blogging seem simple but promoted tactics that didn’t work, or missed out the vital first steps. Added to this poor advice is that of a learning curve. Newbies not only have to struggle through the mire to find the accurate advice, they also have to learn enough to recognise the accurate from the mire.

Here you set out some sound and useful advice which I wish I’d had when I first started out.

Thanks so much for this post. Two questions, if you don’t mind taking the time to answer: 1) How does blogging help sell a book that will have largely overlapping content? Why would anyone buy the book if they’ve read the blog? I believe you, but I’m just having a hard time grasping it! 2) I’m trying out the WordPress free version before I commit, and it’s incredibly buggy. Is this their way of trying to get people to upgrade, or are all the levels like that? Thanks for your help!

Hi Meg: 1. I can use my own situation as a great example. Some of the most popular content on this site is repurposed into a cohesive guidebook, PUBLISHING 101, and it has sold about 10,000 copies. My blog reaches far more people in the end, but it serves a different purpose than the book—it answers very specific questions and many readers may not return to this site because they found what they needed. But others want a comprehensive guide to the publishing industry, and for that audience, a book is often a more straightforward and pleasant way of consuming… Read more »

Thanks for your quick reply! I will need to ponder this, as my topic is children’s books, which has a quality of “taking a stroll through some stuff” that can probably be consumed as easily on a blog or in a book. That said, I’m starting to see the possibilities of saying different things on a blog than I’m saying in the book. I’m guessing also there are people out there who are not as cheap as me (!) who would buy a book of a blog they’re a fan of, just to own the book, or give it as… Read more »

Ah, if you’re a children’s writer, I’m not sure blogging is the best strategy (in terms of growing an author platform) unless you have an innate drive to do it or otherwise will be targeting educators, librarians, etc. Debbie Ohi is a good model to follow in terms of children’s authors who are very active online, although she has the advantage of also being an illustrator (having original and creative visuals helps immensely).

This is so comprehensive about blogging! I’ve been blogging for some 5 years as a fiction author and it’s quite challenging to keep blogging in the fiction area. I know lots of bloggers who blog about writing and marketing and that subject gets lots of followers and hits, but if you are blogging about fiction, novels, short stories, flash fiction it’s far more difficult. I was getting about 40-50 hits a day on my Reading Fiction Blog and then I started posting about my blog on Instagram and now I’m getting more like 90 – 100 hits a day. Instagram… Read more »

This is SO HELPFUL! I used to blog a few years ago, then I went into BookTube, but I’m trying to get back to blogging as an author. (Or aspiring author since I’m unpublished as of right now.) I really love blogging and I’m trying to do a mix of posts about my writing process, the books I’m reading, and some general life updates. Then, at least once a month I’ve been doing a Flash Fiction Friday piece. And seeing how your blog started out, makes me feel A LOT better about mine since I’m having a slow start. I’d… Read more »

Thanks for this update, Jane. I will be starting a blog soon, and this is great information. I’ve noticed some bloggers I follow have started removing the dates from their posts. It drives me crazy. Do you think this is ever a good strategy?

It drives me crazy, too. I don’t recommend removing dates because people who look for the date CARE about the date, and will likely discount/reject any blogger that deliberately obfuscates. It doesn’t inspire trust.

i started out OH!-so-ignorant (naive) and floundering! after about 6 months, i began sharing others’ FB and blog posts, and have grown since then. i have regular features (guest posts, reviews, and interviews) nearly every week, and participate in a group blog (First Line Fridays)
i have gone from bland little posts, to include a header that is consistent across my various features, and a banner for each feature (also consistent.)
only when i have a new release do i bring the focus to my own work. I enjoy what i’m doing and enjoy sharing the efforts and success of other authors!

Thanks for posting and updating this content. I consider it to be an “evergreen” topic as I like to refer back to Blogging 101 references to ensure I am on the right page. I write for my humor blog while also writing a novel and you’re right that each requires different techniques. The blog gives me an opportunity to get immediate feedback, which is great. The novel gives me the opportunity to work on my creative writing chops. I still have a lot to learn, but I think the most important thing for all writers is to realize that there… Read more »

Excellent post and many useful suggestions. I am sure many will benefit. We post our chapters as written on the Blog/Website so content is NO problem. In fact, if we are “slow” with new chapters the readers get worried and comment. One novel has generated over 12,900 comments this year and when the Vol 1 and Vol 2 (of 3) were published in paperback and digitally sales were VERY rewarding and continue daily. Have three more novels for 2018 so the “blog” will continue to grow (as will sales) Social media drives a lot of traffic. Facebook Page sent 400,000… Read more »

This is the definitive guide! I’ve been a casual blogger for years, since the days it was all HTML on Notepad or LiveJournal. Making the jump into “new blogging” — after so many decades — is quite the leap for me. This post is marvelous. I have so much to learn. Thank you.

Jane I have been contributing to blogs for a while but don’t have my own. I e-published my first book The Hartnetts about six months ago and I have spent the past six months trying to promote it while writing other things as well. I have been contributing to other blogs and I know that I really need to set up my own. What I wanted to ask you is will persistently contributing get you noticed while trying to set up your own?

Hi Tom: I find it unlikely that blogging would be your next best step (whether at your own site or guesting for others), although I would encourage you to set up an author website. I discuss blogging more here: https://www.janefriedman.com/blogging-for-writers/

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About Jane

I have more than 20 years of experience in the book and magazine publishing industry, with expertise in digital media and the future of authorship. I speak around the world at events such as BookExpo America, Frankfurt Book Fair, and Digital Book World, and have keynoted writing conferences such as The Muse & The Marketplace. Read more.